HOF Goalie: No Reason For Fleury To Not Be Great In Playoffs

Marc-Andre Fleury #29 of the Pittsburgh Penguins makes a save against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the game at Consol Energy Center on December 16, 2013 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.(Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)

PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan) — Former Detroit Red Wings Hall of Fame goalie Ken Dryden joined The Cook and Poni Show on Friday morning.

Dryden is considered by many as one of, if not the greatest, goalies of all-time, so the guys did not hesitate to ask him about the mental side of the game and how Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury can be so dominate in the regular season, but fall apart in the playoffs.

“The playoffs are the best time to be a goalie,” Dryden said. “But one bad game can send things into a spiral because there is less time to recover and it sends people into a panic.”

Dryden tells the guys that one bad game can make a goalie question himself and then the pressure can ramp up even more and then everything can crumble in a hurry.

He expects that Fleury will be just fine this year, because he has the experience.

He has the big save in a Cup-winning game — he has been there before and done it before and he needs to focus on that.

“It’s not like the playoffs are an alien experience for him,” Dryden said. “There is no reason for him not to play as well as he has played in the playoffs prior or in the regular season.”

He said Fleury needs his team to play well in front of him. That might be the bigger question mark.

Dryden was watching when there was a near goalie fight in the Pens game Wednesday night. Dryden says he has never been in a goalie fight and really doesn’t feel it makes sense.

“Why, what is the point?” Dryden asked. “Do they see the other guys fighting and don’t want to be left out?”

He says it just doesn’t make sense.

Dryden also talks about former coach Scottie Bowman and he tells the guys how he compared him to Steve Jobs and the TV doctor “House.”

Dryden has had a dynamite career, which is included in his book “The Game.”

Widely acknowledged as the “Greatest Hockey Book Ever Written” for the past 30 years and lauded by Sports Illustrated as one of the Top 10 Sports books of all time, “The Game” is a reflective and thought-provoking look at a life in hockey. Dryden, the Hall of Fame former Montreal Canadiens goalie and former president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, captures the essence of the sport and what it means to all hockey fans.

Reading like a story, Dryden takes readers through final days of the last season of his hockey career in 1979 with the Montreal Canadiens.

Now, three decades after its release, “The Game: 30th Anniversary Edition” (Triumph Books, November 2013) has an additional chapter about the Stanley Cup and the day it traveled to Dryden’s father’s small hometown of Domain, Manitoba, as well as a foreword by Bill Simmons.

Listen to the full interview here:

HOF Goalie Dryden: No Reason For Fleury Not To Be Great In The Playoffs

Listen to the Cook and Poni Show weekdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sportsradio 93.7 The Fan.